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Credit: Siddharth Doshi

A Stanford team led by Siddharth Doshi, first author and a Wu Tsai Performance Research Fellow alumnus, has developed a nanoscale, flexible material that replicates one of nature’s impressive tricks: the rapid camouflage abilities of octopuses and cuttlefish. Researchers can change both the material’s surface texture and color in seconds, achieving detail at scales finer than a human hair. The research is published in the journal Nature.

Dubbed “soft photonic skins,” these materials may lead to applications such as dynamic camouflage for soft robots and chemically responsive wearable sensors. The technology uses electron-beam lithography, which fires an electron beam at the film to etch a pattern. When the film gets wet, non-etched areas swell to different degrees, causing intricate patterns to emerge. When dry, the film is flat. But add water and the shape emerges from the surface.

That same responsiveness could eventually extend beyond water. Sweat, for instance, carries biochemical information like electrolytes, lactate, glucose, and cortisol, which could help reflect what’s happening inside the body during physical activity.

“With more work on the chemistry, these skins could be made to change appearance in response to biochemical signals in sweat or mechanical signals like force or strain,” said Doshi. “In the long term, wearables or textiles that display these hidden signals from the body in real time could help display and monitor performance.”

Looking ahead, the team is working to integrate AI-powered computer vision so the material can adjust itself to blend into any background without human intervention.

Read the full Stanford Report story.

Media coverage: Discover Magazine, C&EN, ZME Science, Earth